Front Streeting: Teacher Candidates of Color and the Pedagogical Challenges of Cultural Relevancy

Abstract

Educational research widely neglects the effectiveness of multicultural education courses among teacher candidates of color (TCCs). In this article, the experiences of six Black preservice teachers enrolled in a diversity course are explicated to unearth nuanced pedagogical missteps that hinder their development as students of asset pedagogies. Undergirded by the five principles of critical race theory, findings reveal that TCCs exhibit varied forms of resistance to monolithic content that frame minoritized groups in the deficit. In this particular study, Front Streeting refers to the vulnerability teachers of color experience when their minoritized identities are fetishized in diversity classrooms, through an expectation of confirmed lived experiences or expert knowledge of their demographic groups. The article explores the general privileging of whiteness in multicultural education curriculum and instruction while challenging teacher educators to reconsider how to engage students from diverse demographic groups. [Asset pedagogy, teacher education, multicultural education, critical race theory, front streeting, critical pedagogy] And a lot of time…yeah... they like…give their views on African Americans, but…they don't really put like…Caucasians in this. I mean….not the Caucasians in this class, But they don't really put like-Caucasians on Front Street.Frustrated with her peers dancing around the commonplace essentialism of Black life in curricular material and pedagogy, Imani called out the practice of compelling Black students to share lived experiences regardless of whether they feel comfortable doing it. Imani's outburst disrupted the polite criticisms offered by her friends when I asked, "Have you ever experienced anything in this class that offended you?" Evidently, she had. And the resounding echo of her sentiments by the other four Black women in the focal group interview validated her position.

Introduction

“…First, the research experience of the book's editors (Gutman, 2019;Jayusi & Bekerman, 2019, 2020 shows that one of the challenges of the education system and teacher training lies in preparing graduates for life in a diverse, cosmopolitan, and multicultural society. This conclusion is consistent with the literature (Bartanen & Grissom, 2019;Smith Kondo, 2019) which holds that ensuring diversity among staff indicates overt support and contribution by the institution and the education system vis-à-vis such preparation. Since most societies in the world today are characterized by a diverse cultural mosaic, the chances of graduates of the education system meeting people with diverse identities are high.…”

“Why Are We Only Learning About White People?” The Role of Identity in the Curricular and Pedagogical Considerations of One Latino Educator

“…These conflicts arise because their identity as a racialized, gendered and cultured beings differs from the professional identity they are expected to assume inside of school (Agee, 2004;Gilpin, 2005;Olitsky, 2020;Singh, 2019). Similarly, minoritized educators are forced to grapple with the proliferating constructs of whiteness and racialized gender constructs that have infiltrated the formations of their personal and professional identities (Burant et al, 2002;Gilpin, 2005;Ramanathan, 2006;Smith Kondo, 2019, Warren, 2020. Further complicating the development of professional identities for minoritized educators is the fact that they embody multiple complex and weaving identities that cannot be separated (Crenshaw, 1995).…”

The Counter-Deficit Lens in Educational Research: Interrogating Conceptions of Structural Oppression

“…Community college program leadership fails to see the strength of Latinx students and instead attempts to "fix" them (Winterer et al, 2020), and doctoral student pipelines to academia are riddled with deficit assumptions about their academic ability (Blockett et al, 2016). Even teacher educators allegedly committed to social justice fetishize their students of color and highlight the deficits of their communities (Smith Kondo, 2019). In the counter-deficit lens, educators are primary culprits in the deficit framing and subsequent underachievement of their students.…”